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| A stowaway kitten survives in a Costco container that was shipped from the mainland to Kauai. |
Costco employees in Lihue, Kauai, received some unexpected merchandise last week when a 4-month-old male kitten stepped out of a mixed dry goods container, Kauai World reported. The container had been at sea for a week, traveling to the island from California.
The Hawaii Department of Agriculture worked with the Kauai Humane Society to safely trap the shorthaired gray kitten, now named Costco, who scampered into the warehouse store and spent the night setting off motion sensor alarms. The kitten will be quarantined at the shelter for four months, per Hawaii’s normal animal quarantine procedures.
“He’s really cute and doing really well for having been in a container for a week,” said Dr. Becky Rhoades, the shelter’s executive director. “We don’t know how he got on there, but we hope to find him a home here.”
Because Costco came into Hawaii from the mainland, he needs to be quarantined for 120 days at the shelter’s satellite quarantine facility because Hawaii is rabies free. The cost of the quarantine runs around $10 per day.
“We can't make him available for adoption to anyone in Hawaii until he completes quarantine unless of course, they want to pay the $1200 and come visit him throughout his stay,” Dr. Rhoades said. “Our normal adoption fee is $50 per cat or kitten with all the benefits of spay/neuter, vaccination, microchip, flea control, worming, carrier, etc.”
Anyone on the mainland who wishes to adopt Costco needs to make arrangements to fly him, pay the balance of the quarantine boarding, plus the $50 adoption fee. For more information, visit the shelter’s website, email khs@kauaihumane.org, or call (808) 632-0610.